Are Chinese realizing Bolivar’s ‘Supreme Dream’?

(posted April 29, 10:20 p.m.)- South American liberator Simón Bolívar must have tossed and turned in his sleep; apparently he had reoccurring dreams of the Chinese building an oil refinery in Nicaragua.

The so-called “Supreme Dream of Bolívar” oil refinery that Venezuela has been promising to build here for the past five years apparently has been handed over to Chinese dream-makers CAMC Engineering Co., which is reportedly building the first phase of the project, according to daily El Nuevo Diario.

The refinery is being built 15 kilometers outside of León, near Puerto Sandino, the site of the mysterious oil spill that occurred last month from a supposedly “50 year-old disused oil pipe”—an event authorities have yet to explain with any combination of words that make sense.

El Nuevo Diario reports that the Chinese construction firm has already started moving earth on the $183 million construction of the refinery, which will eventually be able to process some 150,000 barrels of crude oil a day and generate nearly $700 million in annual revenue forNicaragua, according to previous government estimates. Phase I will reportedly be ready in less than two years, according to El Nuevo Diario.

In the land of rumors, secrets, fair tales and nebulous natter, the government has yet to confirm or deny El Nuevo Diario’s reports of Chinese collaboration. The last the government spoke of the project was several months ago, when its propaganda outlets reported that construction was completed on the concrete road leading from the Inter-American Highway to the dirt field where the refinery might be some day.

The refinery will cost anywhere between $3.9 -$6 billion, depending on who’s guessing. It also remains to be seen how Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s rapidly deteriorating health will factor in the long-term plans to finish the refinery.

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The U.S. embassy in Nicaragua is downplaying concerns raised by Sandinista health officials in Managua that one of its embassy staff workers was infected with Ebola during a recent mission to Liberia, West Africa. “In no moment was he in contact with Ebola patients,” the U.S. embassy said in statement, following a live broadcast by government health workers claiming the exact opposite.

Cuba this week offered to throw the entire weight of its international medical mission at stopping the spread of Ebola and avoiding— in the words of Raul Castro— “a humanitarian crisis of unpredictable consequences.”

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega on Monday congratulated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV) for fending off the opposition Democratic Unity Movement (MUD) in Sunday’s municipal elections, which appear to have split the oil-producing country along rural and urban lines.
Despite presiding over a government plagued by a disastrous economy, frequent power cuts and soaring violence, Maduro’s electoral machine was able to mobilize enough voters to best the opposition 49.2% to 42.7%, according to the official vote tally. Overall, the party founded by deceased president Hugo Chávez won 196 of 335 municipalities, while the opposition MUD took 53 municipalities, including several of the most important cities in the country.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who was unable to translate Venezuela’s economic mismanagement into a resounding victory over the ruling party, said the poll results show that Venezuela remains a deeply divided country.

Wonder how many jobs will be created for Nicas, in Africa, when a Chinese company starts a project they import the machinery and people who operate them.

GringoLoco

Not many Nica jobs and then only die-hard F$LN-Danielistas.

When Arias of Costa Rica was paid off to throw Taiwan in the dumpster in favor of communi$t China, the “visible” pay-off was a new National Stadium. China imported thousands of workers, boatloads of material, etc. It is the cost of doing business with los chinos…

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Editorial
With an obsequious bow to Russian expansionism, Nicaragua this week joined North Korea, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and five other model democracies in rejecting a UN resolution that reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine. The UN resolution, which calls the Crimea referendum invalid and urges a “peaceful resolution” to the crisis following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, was supported by 100 nations and rejected by 11.

As Sandinista faithful mobilize in the streets of Managua to pay homage to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on the one-year anniversary of his death, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan analysts predict the international project he started won’t outlive its founder for much longer. President Daniel Ortega, who is traveling to Venezuela to pay official tribute to his former benefactor, honored Chávez as a revolutionary who “fought for the people, fought for America, fought for humanity, fought for peace and fought for justice.”
Prior to leaving for the airport today, Ortega said that now, “more than ever,” the countries belonging to the alliance created by Chávez will “continue to fight for peace, for justice, for liberty and for the sovereignty of our people.”
But just a year after the loss of Chávez’s charismatic leadership, and amid the ruin of Venezuela’s economy, the Bolivarian Alliance for Our Americas (ALBA) —Chávez’s brainchild for regional integration — appears to be collapsing under the weight of its own ambition.